Would YOU accept less anesthesia during surgery to save the planet? Doctors say it could reduce the world’s carbon footprint by up to 0.1%

Researchers are calling on doctors to use less anesthesia on their surgery patients in the name of climate change.

Doctors at Henry Ford Health in Detroit, Michigan, said it could significantly reduce the carbon footprint of American hospitals.

Research shows that inhaled anesthetics are responsible for up to 0.1 percent of global carbon emissions.

Dr. Mohamed Fayed, chief anesthetist at Henry Ford, said: “Global warming is increasingly affecting our daily lives and reducing greenhouse gas emissions has become crucial.

“No matter how small an effect, it will add up. As anesthesiologists, we can make an important contribution to this by making small changes in our daily practice, such as: B. reducing anesthetic gas flow without compromising patient care set.’

He made the comments last Friday at the American Society of Anesthesiologists’ annual event in Orlando, Florida.

Henry Ford researchers collected data from 13,000 patients over the seven months from March to September 2021. They set themselves the goal of reducing anesthetic consumption to less than 3 liters of anesthetic per minute (L/m) per operation if possible.

To reduce the overall use of anesthesia in the hospital, the team instructed doctors to scale back the amount used between these parts of the procedure.

This only applies to inhalation anesthesia, not sedation or local anesthesia used in minor procedures.

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At the start of their study, only 65 percent of surgeries fell below this threshold. After months of teaching, they reduced the number to just seven percent.

Now they want to reduce the anesthetic consumption to less than 2 l/m2 in as many operations as possible.

“There has long been a perception that health care-related global warming represents an unavoidable and unavoidable cost of patient care,” said Dr. perish

“But what we’ve learned is that reducing anesthetic gas flow is one of many ways the healthcare sector can reduce its contribution to the global warming crisis, along with reducing waste, turning off lights and appliances when not in use, and the Challenging exercise habits as long as they do not interfere with patient care.”

The amount of anesthesia a person receives during the operation depends on their weight and other factors, such as the length of the operation, age and possible risk factors

Surgical anesthetics consist of several chemicals, including nitrous oxide, halothane, isoflurane, desflurane, sevoflurane.

Applying an anesthetic for an hour can affect the atmosphere as much as someone driving nearly 500 miles in a car, researchers say.

Henry Ford’s research team, who presented their findings this week at ADVANCE 2023 in Orlando, Florida, explains that surgical anesthesia requires fresh gas at the beginning and end of the procedure.

The use of high levels of anesthesia carries risks. Although safe in almost all cases, too much anesthesia can deprive cells of oxygen and cause stroke, brain injury, coma, or even death.

However, there are also risks if you don’t get enough anesthesia.

A person can always wake up during surgery, which can be painful and very traumatic.